I briefly mentioned finders in my last rant. This has led me to my latest gripe – whatever happened to high-eyepoint viewfinders? Leica and Nikon finders pleasured a whole generation of sweaty, overweight, myopic photographers.

Continue reading " You Point, Eyepoint "

Dear Pentax and Nikon,

I applaud both of you for sticking with the lens mount system that made both of your companies famous back in the day. Allowing photographers to mix older lenses with new ones in their optical libraries gives both of your systems an unparalleled advantage when it comes to the palette of lenses afforded to a shooter.

On the other hand…

Continue reading " A Love Letter to Nikon & Pentax "

Well, it looks like the wait is over. We have gone from the prototyped retro-istic Eastern European rock star, with lush color and loads of metal, to this lowly ‘plastique’ abomination that looks like an early Sony CyberShot. I pray to the gods of megapixels that Olympus make the E-P1 in black to hide its shame…

Continue reading " The Pocket Leica has Arrived… or has it? "

The 2009 PMA expo has been rather ho-hum. The big three of the camera industry Canon, Nikon and Sony (yes, Sony) seem to be saving up any new gear introductions for a better economy or Q3 2009, whichever comes first. Thankfully we have a growing range of EVIL cameras to keep us occupied until then.

Continue reading " The Micro Four Thirds Game Heats Up… "

Announced today is the Epson R-D1x; the third incarnation of a camera only slightly upgraded from the original digital rangefinder released in 2004. Built by Cosina, the company behind the Voigtlander rangefinders, this latest revision has to be a bit of an embarrassment for Epson.

Continue reading " Has Epson Perfected Time Travel? "

Right now, I am starting work an article for my other (paid) content publishing venue on using Leica M lenses on the new Micro Four-Thirds (MFT) camera. This article is a total gamble as I am hoping at least one of the two rumored Olympus MFT cameras is revealed at the upcoming PMA show in Las Vegas, thusly justifying the article. We have all seen and been titillated by the carrot-colored Werra-inspired Olympus prototype shown at last-year’s Photokina trade show.

Continue reading " Unofficial Micro Four-Thirds Preview "